Bile Baloo, Chapter two
Chapter two of Bile Baloo. Plot Mowgli has arrived at the scene where Ferao witnessed Baloo's abduction. While tracks and other imprints in the ground were almost absent, Mowgli did find a strand of hair that smelled like a sloth bear. "Yep, this is Baloo alright, I'd recognized that honey-laden fragrance anywhere" he identifies, then turns to Ferao, "where'd you see them go?" he asks, "to be honest I hadn't paid attention, I was more focused on sneaking off" Ferao admits shamefully, "well lucky for you I can still track them" Mowgli boasts, "how are you gonna do that? tracking device implanted?" Ferao wonders, "nope, smelling their scent" Mowgli answers and crouches toward the ground to sniff, much to Ferao's amazement, "I didn't know your kind could do that" he remarks, "well normally we can't, but I can tell which smell belongs to what" Mowgli confides, "oh, no wonder humans employ dogs for sniffing out things, but you're practically half-dog" Ferao notes, "well I was raised by wolves" Mowgli counters, "true" Ferao remarks as Mowgli fallows the trail. At a town near the man-village, Alex and Jumeirah were shopping when they came across a crowd of people looking like they were engrossed in something. To their disgust, it turned out be a dancing sloth-bear-cub (but didn't know this was Kit the Sloth Bear), along with, strangely, an adult male bear too, plus a tiger, a leopard, a wolf, a mugger crocodile and a reticulated python. While the other humans were oblivious, Jumeirah and Alex could see the cub looked to be in pain. "How appalling" Jumeirah notes and turns away in disgust, if Mowgli were here he would have a meltdown over this, Alex and Kit gave each other a brief look in the eye and while they didn't know it, they sense a connection between them, before Alex had to leave and Kit gets yanked by his chain to make him perform more, the other animals also noticed and felt something going on, "who was that kid?" the tiger asks, "don't know, but it looked primal to me" answered the snake, "I thought only one human was known to have fully embraced the primal ways: the so-called wolf-boy Mowgli" note the bear, "well who's to say he can't pass it on? look" the leopard says watching Alex and Jumeirah come watch a performing elephant with a young man about Mowgli's age, "now this is how animals should perform for humans: at their own free will" Alex remarks as the elephant lowers its owner down right in front of them, who had overheard, "I see you highly value animal-welfare" he remarks to Alex, "well that usually comes from having a father raised by wolves" Jumeirah jokes, "what kind of father?" the man asks suspiciously, "Mowgli" Alex proudly announces, "as in the wolf-boy, he's your father?" the man gasps, "yeah, I'm his wife Jumeirah" Jumeirah introduces, "I see, I'm Toomai, and this here is my friend Kala Nag" the man introduces while the elephant takes an interest in Alex, "uh, hello?" he says unsurely, "yes I can understand you" Alex reveals, "you can speak our language?" Kala Nag gasps, "thanks to my dad" Alex answers which Toomai noticed, "is he actually communicating with Kala Nag?" he wonders, "believe it or not yes, Mowgli taught it to him" Jumeirah confirms, "well I would very like to meet him" Toomai requests, "that's gonna be a bit difficult, you see a bear dad knows personally has been kidnapped for something evil and dad's currently looking for him" Alex notifies, "oh I'm sorry, and I take it neither of those two over there are it?" Toomai speculates, "no, the bear's an adult, and for some reason purplish" Jumeirah informs, "I see, still it breaks my heart to see a little bear dance like that" Toomai notes on Kit, "tell me about it" Alex growls resisting the urge to go in and wrestle that cub free, but something told him to wait. Those six animals alongside secretly watched the exchange between Alex and Kala Nag, noting that they looked like they were conversing. "That clinches it: that kid is in a way related to the legendary Mowgli" said the wolf, "and if another human speaking in an animal's tongue is real, then the wolf-boy himself must also be" deduced the leopard, "me wanna meet him" said the crocodile rather stupidly, "quiet Ajit" reprimands the tiger pummeling the croc, "sorry" Ajit apologizes, "are you still sure teaming up with these humans was a good idea Wangari?" asks the bear, "trust me: this human clearly seems to know the jungle-boy himself, he was also watching that boy with the elephant" the leopard reasoned and the human making Kit dance saw it too, along with Kit himself, the human was Riswan, who recognized Jumeirah but the boy with her was new, "hmm, looks like Jumeirah and the jungle-boy hooked up" he deduces, "see Daghishat?" Wangari confirms to the bear, "I knew it, the human who killed my cousin is the wolf-boy" the tiger growls, "don't forget Henith, my cousin became an alley of his" the bear, Daghishat, recalls to the tiger, Henith, "what should we do?" asks the wolf, "well, I say stick with the evil humans, at least until we can see this jungle-boy for ourselves" Wangari says, "and then we eat him?" Ajit wonders, "maybe" Wangari shrugs, "eh, I won't be hungry by then" the snake rejects, "your loss then Nagini" the wolf taunts, "shut it Kalayavan" the snake, Nagini, warns the wolf, Kalayavan, who quivers apologetically. At the bile-farm, Baloo was engrossing Rebecca, Molly and some other bears (except Carth) in his descriptions of Mowgli, that is until the door opens and Kit comes in, fallowed by, bizarrely, another sloth bear, one Baloo didn't think he'd see ever again. "Daghishat" he growls, "good to see you remember me cousin" Daghishat taunts, "cousin, wait, is he-" Rebecca babbles, "I'm afraid so" Baloo admits before scowling at Daghishat, "never knew you liked hanging out with humans, you usually eat them" he insults making the other captive bears gasp, except Carth who took interest, "what can I say? I hate vegetables" Daghishat scoffs, "killing humans will only bring a bounty on your head" Baloo points out, "so what? me and my partners-in-crime have gotten away with it for years, as long as Shere Khan has" Daghishat says, "you'll face justice sooner or later" Baloo vows when Henith and the other man-eaters join in, "ah yes, the jungle-boy who killed my cousin" Henith remarks shocking Baloo, "you're Shere Khan's cousin?" Baloo gasps, "the one and only, when that man-cub comes, he's dead meat" Henith vows, "too bad for you killing something imaginary is impossible" Carth jokes, which got Nagini in his face, "don't be too quick to judge Carth: we've seen another human speaking the animal-language" she reveals, "ooh so now another kid is being raised by an animal?" Carth humors stubbornly, "he's real, I saw a boy communicating to an elephant earlier" Kit ascertains, "Alex" Baloo realizes, "I'm guessing that's the boy's name, and that he's related to Mowgli?" Wangari suspects, but Baloo was reluctant to answer, "don't be ridiculous: humans can't hear us talk, let alone speak our languages" Carth objects, "do we look like we're joking?" Henith growls, "no, only gullible and or crazy" Carth answers, earning a hiss from Henith, "I don't joke, I have no sense of humor" he states seriously, "you're not gonna convince me even if you threatened to eat me" Carth says, "that can be arranged, mark my words though, mocking us will land you on thin ice, do not expect us to admit being wrong" Nagini warns and the man-eaters leave, the door being closed by Ganshum, who even though he had no idea what exactly was being said in there, could tell from their gestures and facial-expressions that they were all worked up by something, especially Baloo Kit Henith and that black bear. Stay tuned for Bile Baloo, Chapter three Notes *Toomai and Kala Nag are from the related jungle book story "Toomai of the Elephants". Gallery Category:Fanfiction